UAE nationals need an approved ETA before flying to Colombo, about four and a half hours from Dubai. It gives 30 days and two entries, and the Sri Lankan government charge is waived for Emirati passports.
30 days
Stay on a tourist ETA
Double
Entries permitted
6 months
Passport validity needed
3 options
Tourist, Business, Transit
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Colombo is closer to Dubai than many Emiratis realise: about four and a half hours in the air, less than the flight to most of Europe, with a landscape at the other end that could hardly be more different from the Gulf coast. Tea hills, rivers, elephants and year-round green are the draw, and families from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah increasingly treat the island as a long-weekend destination.
What Emirati citizens need before boarding is an Electronic Travel Authorisation, or ETA. You will see it called a Sri Lanka visa or an e-visa in search results, and people mean the same thing: an online permission, approved before you fly and recorded against your passport number. An Emirati passport opens many borders without paperwork, but Sri Lanka asks every foreign visitor for this step.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the 40 countries whose nationals have had the Sri Lankan government charge on a tourist ETA waived since 25 May 2026. The authorisation is still compulsory, and our application assistance carries a service fee, so check the live prices shown on this page instead of assuming nothing is payable. This page is written for UAE nationals; expatriate residents of the Emirates apply on the passport they actually hold, and their fee position follows that nationality.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. Emirati citizens need an approved ETA for any short visit to Sri Lanka, whether that is a week in Bentota, a family visit, an Ayurveda programme or a cricket fixture in Colombo. The May 2026 waiver removed the government charge for UAE passports, not the requirement, and airline staff at Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah check for the approval at the desk.
A tourist ETA gives an Emirati traveller 30 days and two entries. That covers holidays, visiting friends and relatives, medical and wellness stays, sporting events and cultural performances. It does not stretch to work of any kind, paid or unpaid.
Business travel is a separate matter. Meetings, negotiations, conferences, seminars and training of under a month need the business option, not the tourist one. If your trip mixes a board meeting with a few days on the south coast, the meeting decides which type you select.
Emirati families often travel as a large group, with grandparents, children and household members on the same booking. Each person needs to be covered, including infants, and household staff travelling with you fall under the rules for their own nationality, not yours.
Stay & validity
The stay granted to UAE nationals is 30 days, counted from the day you first clear immigration at Bandaranaike. Two entries are allowed, but both sit inside that single 30-day period. Fly from Colombo to Malé for four nights in the middle of your trip and you return to whatever balance is left, not to a new month.
Separately, the approval itself has a shelf life. Once issued it can be used to travel for six months, which suits the Emirati habit of securing documents early and fixing flights late. Whatever conditions are printed on your approval take precedence over any general description.
Passport validity is rarely a problem for adults since the UAE moved to ten-year passports for citizens aged 21 and over, but younger family members still hold five-year books that run down faster than parents expect. Sri Lanka wants six months left on the date of arrival. Renewing any of them after approval means that person's ETA must be applied for again.
Pricing
Live fees for Emirati passport holders, shown all-in — any government charge that applies to your passport and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as United Arab Emirates
Requirements
Everything Emirati passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
Passport valid for at least six months from the date you arrive in Sri Lanka — the same passport you will travel on
A clear image of the passport bio-data page, with every corner visible and no glare over the photograph
A working email address, which is where the approval is sent and which you should be able to open while travelling
A credit or debit card for online payment
Your intended arrival date and an address in Sri Lanka, such as your first hotel
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with one form per traveller and a full review before you pay.
Pick the Tourist, Business or Transit option that matches the real purpose of your trip, and add every traveller in your party to the same application.
Give each traveller's details exactly as printed on the passport, plus the intended arrival date and an address in Sri Lanka. Entries are made in English.
Check every name, date and passport number on the review screen before paying. Corrections are simple at this stage and difficult afterwards.
The approval is linked electronically to your passport number. Keep a copy on your phone and a printout with your travel documents for check-in and arrival.
Most applications from UAE nationals come back within a day or two. That is a typical experience and not a promise, so apply three to five days before departure at the least.
The Emirati calendar creates predictable rushes. Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha breaks are announced close to the date once the moon sighting is confirmed, and thousands of families book within hours. If Sri Lanka is on your shortlist for either Eid, apply in the preceding fortnight.
The same applies to the days around Eid Al Etihad at the start of December and the school winter break that follows. Those weeks coincide with Sri Lanka's own high season on the south and west coasts, when volumes from Europe are at their peak as well.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land, and how to make the arrival as quick as possible.
Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake, about 30 kilometres north of Colombo, handles nearly all international arrivals. Follow the signs to immigration and join the foreign passport queue.
The officer retrieves your ETA from the passport number. Have the approval email to hand as a backup, on paper or saved offline, since airport connectivity is not guaranteed.
You may be asked where you are staying, how long for and when you leave. A hotel confirmation and your return ticket answer all three in a few seconds.
Your passport is endorsed with the date you must leave by. Read it at the counter — that date, not the length of your booking, is what counts if your plans change.
Getting there
Few countries are better connected to Sri Lanka than the UAE. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah all have nonstop flights to Colombo Bandaranaike, several of them daily or more. Travellers from Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Al Ain generally drive to one of the three.
Best time to go
The Emirati year and the Sri Lankan year fit together better than most. From December to March, when the UAE is at its most pleasant and schools take their winter break, the south and west coasts of Sri Lanka are dry and calm: Bentota, Galle Fort, Mirissa for whale watching, and the tea estates around Nuwara Eliya and Ella at their clearest.
Summer is when the appeal changes character. In July and August, with Gulf temperatures well into the forties, many Emirati families go looking for rain and cool air instead of avoiding it. The south-west monsoon delivers exactly that to Colombo and the hills, while the east coast around Trincomalee and Pasikudah is in its dry season with flat, swimmable sea.
Eid dates move through the calendar by about eleven days a year, so the right coast for an Eid trip changes over time. Check which side of the island is in season for that year's dates. Visitors will find a long-established Muslim community, mosques in every sizeable town and halal food without difficulty.
Sri Lanka runs an hour and a half ahead of the UAE all year, since neither country changes its clocks. Jet lag is not a factor. The Kandy Esala Perahera in July or August fills hotels in the hill capital weeks ahead.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from United Arab Emirates — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
UAE nationals are used to crossing GCC borders on an identity card. Sri Lanka requires both a passport and an ETA recorded against its number. Arriving at the check-in desk with only an ID card, or with a passport and no approval, ends the trip there.
The Latin form on your passport is the only one that counts. Mohammed, Mohamed and Muhammad are different entries to a matching system, as are Al Mansoori and Almansouri. Copy the name letter by letter from the photo page, including the spacing of Al, Bin or Bint.
Large family trips are often arranged by a relative, an office PRO or a travel coordinator entering a dozen passports in one sitting. One transposed digit in a passport number means a new application for that traveller, because a paid entry cannot be corrected. Ask for the review screen to be shared before payment.
News that the government charge had been lifted for the UAE was widely read as Sri Lanka becoming visa-exempt for Emiratis. It is not. The ETA remains mandatory and the airline verifies it before departure.
Passport number mistyped
The authorisation attaches to the number you enter. One wrong character produces an ETA that does not match the passport handed over at the counter, and a paid application cannot be edited afterwards.
Passport with under six months left
Sri Lanka expects six months of validity counted from the day you arrive, not the day you apply. A passport that falls short is refused at check-in regardless of the ETA.
The wrong ETA type
Attending meetings or a conference on a tourist ETA is outside its conditions. Choose the option that matches what you will actually do in the country.
Conditions
These conditions are set by Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration and Emigration and do not vary by nationality.
Sri Lanka requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation for short visits by all foreign nationals, and it should be approved before you travel. Even where the government charge is waived, the authorisation itself is still required.
The authorisation is recorded against the passport number you enter. If that passport is lost, replaced or renewed before you travel, the ETA does not move across and a new application is needed.
A tourist ETA allows two entries. The stay period runs from your first arrival, so a second entry is granted only the balance of that period rather than a fresh allowance.
A tourist ETA covers holidays, family visits, medical treatment and cultural or sporting events. Business meetings, conferences and short training need the business option, and a stopover of up to two days uses the transit option.
Immigration officers at the port of entry may ask for a confirmed return or onward ticket and evidence that you can support yourself for the length of your stay.
An approved ETA lets you travel to Sri Lanka. The decision to admit you is made by an immigration officer on arrival, and the conditions printed on your approval govern your stay.
Consular services
Sri Lanka has an embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate general in Dubai, both of which mainly serve the large Sri Lankan community working in the Emirates. Emirati citizens applying for a tourist ETA have no reason to visit either.
FAQs
The questions Emirati passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes, in the form of an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Emirati citizens must hold an approved ETA before travelling to Sri Lanka for a short visit, even though the government charge on the tourist ETA has been waived for UAE nationals since 25 May 2026. It is applied for online and tied to the passport number.
The Sri Lankan government charge on a tourist ETA is waived for UAE passport holders. A service fee still applies to our handling of the application. The live prices shown on this page give the current position.
Thirty days from the date of first arrival, with two entries permitted inside that period. A second entry does not restart the count. Remaining longer means seeking an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration, based in Battaramulla near Colombo, before the period expires.
Only partly. The ETA is assessed on nationality, so a resident of the UAE applies with the passport they hold and is charged according to that country's status, whatever their Emirates residence visa says. An Indian or British resident happens to fall under the same waiver; many other nationalities pay the standard government rate.
No. The Emirates ID is accepted for travel between GCC states only. Sri Lanka requires a passport with six months of validity from arrival, and the ETA is linked to that passport's number.
Yes, every child must be included in an application, from newborns upwards. Check that each child's five-year passport has enough validity.
You can, provided the return falls inside the 30 days that began when you first landed in Colombo. Ten days in Sri Lanka, five in the Maldives and a final weekend in Colombo fits comfortably.
No. Conferences, meetings, negotiations and similar commercial activity fall under the business option. Select that instead of the tourist type when you apply.
Your nationality is already set to United Arab Emirates. Complete the form in around ten minutes, review every detail, and receive your ETA by email.
Other nationalities
Charges, routes and the practical details differ by passport. Here are the guides for other nationalities.
